Rufus’s eyes opened again as he felt the Jeep rise, inch by agonizing inch. His joints and tendons afire with what he was accomplishing, Rufus grunted and pulled and heaved and ignored the pain as it snapped perilous signals through his trembling body. The Jeep fought him every punishing inch. It creaked and groaned, cursing him. But then he was standing upright, and he gave the hunk of metal one last heave. Like a wave about to pitch onto a beach, the Jeep cleared the point of no return and fell hard to earth, rocking upon impact and then coming to rest on all four wheels.
Rufus sat down in the Jeep, his whole body shaking from his immense exertions.
Josh looked on in silent wonderment. “Damn,” was all he could finally say about what he had just witnessed.
Rufus’s heart was racing so hard now, he worried his success might prove to be an empty one. He clutched at his chest, breathed deeply. “Please,” he quietly said, “please don’t.” A minute later Rufus slowly rose, shuffled over to his brother and carefully lifted him into the Jeep. He rearranged the cloth top, which had become dislodged when Tremaine and Rayfield had been thrown clear. He gathered up as many supplies as he could from the truck, including his Bible, and put them into the back of the Jeep along with the weaponry. He climbed in the driver’s seat and then stopped and looked over at Tremaine and Rayfield. Then he stared up once again at the circling crow, which had now been joined by several brethren, large enough to be buzzards. In less than a day the two dead men would be picked to the bone if left out in the open.
Rufus climbed out of the Jeep and went over to Rayfield. He didn’t have to check the man’s pulse. The eyes didn’t lie. That and the stench of released bowels. He slid first Rayfield’s and then Tremaine’s bodies into the shack. He said a few simple words over both men before rising and closing the door. One day he would forgive them for all they had done, but not today. Rufus climbed back in the Jeep, gave Josh a reassuring look and started the Jeep. The engine didn’t catch the first time, but it did the second. Gears grinding as Rufus got a quick lesson in driving a stick shift, the Jeep jolted forward, and the brothers left this impromptu battlefield behind.
CHAPTER FIFTY
* * *
The justices traditionally had a private lunch in the Court’s second-floor dining room after oral argument. Fiske had left Sara in her office to catch up on some work. He had decided to use the opportunity to make some inquiries on his own. If his flow of information had been cut off from D.C. Homicide, Fiske decided he’d better make it up somehow. One possible source was Police Chief Leo Dellasandro.
As he walked along the hallway, he thought about the oral argument he just listened to. Even as a lawyer, he had never really understood how much power was wielded from this building. The Supreme Court over its history had taken some very unpopular positions on a myriad of significant issues. Many had been brave and, at least in Fiske’s opinion, correct. But it was unnerving to realize that if a vote or two had gone the other way on some or all of those prior decisions, the country might be very different today. By any definition that seemed to be a precarious, if not perilous, state of events.
Fiske also thought about his brother, and how much good he had undoubtedly brought to this place, even in the role of a clerk. Mike Fiske had always been fair and just in his opinions and actions. And when he made up his mind, a person could not ask for a more loyal friend. Mike Fiske was good for this place. The Court had indeed suffered a great loss when someone had taken his life. But not as great as the Fiske family’s loss.
Fiske made his way to Dellasandro’s ground-floor office, knocked on the door, waited. He knocked again, and then opened the door and peered inside. He was looking at the anteroom to Dellasandro’s office, where his secretary worked. That space was empty. Probably at lunch, Fiske assumed. He stepped into the office. “Chief Dellasandro?” He wanted to know if anything had turned up on the surveillance videos. He also wanted to know if one of the officers had driven Wright home.